Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-17


they must be reduced in time into lesser
territories-that is inevitable, and the is
sue in these matters, therefore, that dis
turbs conscientious legislators most is
after all, this: ''Has the time arrived@
The people of county ought to be the
best Judge in such cases; they know their
wants, the cost of government and all that
the setting up of new county govern
ment involves. They must be assumed to
know if present boundaries inconvenience
them, fail of the very purpose for which
established, and are provocative of heavy
taxation and loss Of time. No one can
Judge any better than they of the chang
| ing conditions in their section; of the new
drift of trade, of the change effected by
| railroad building, settlement of the country,
Reformation, new discoveries, etc. Where
any large number of voting people, in
| county, therefore, express their wish to es-
tablish and their ability to be set apart in
smaller group for local self-government,
they make strong case, and it may be
seriously questioned whether the other
groups from which they seek to disconnect
themselves, can make any showing suffi
cient to overcome their expression of de-
sire to be set apart, backed by ability for
self-maintenance.
People in three counties, we believe, are
now seeking such changes, and we hear
rumors of agitation in two others. Two, at
least, are now before the Legislature and
in each case, as in all the past there are
two classes appealing to the Legislators,
the petitioners and the protestants. The
protest is always entered, no matter how
clear it may be that county boundaries
should be narrowed. We have in mind a
county in very broad Western territory
that stretches more than half way across
the embryo State; the county seat is within
half dozen miles of the east line, yet
despite the demands of the people in the
west end-who are sufficiently numerous
and able-to be allowed to assume local
government for convenience sake, the pro-
tests from the east end prevail, and keep
them in a species of political servitude.
These questions ought not engender bad
blood or heated debates, but be passed upon
solely with these three inquiries for salts
factory answer: Are the petitioners for
local self-government to be brought closer
to them, capable of maintaining it; do
they represent a majority of the people of
the proposed new county? Will the setting
up of the new county for them, conserve
their convenience-and therefore their
content with the government-and leave
in the old county sufficient population and
strength
1t does seem that these things, if, as
they should be, separated from political
schemes, freed from mere local preiudices
and treated in judicial spirit, are easy of
determination. 1t does appear to US also
that the very fact of demand being made
for new county by large body of people
to be affected, and who must serve the new
government is, prima facie, a satisfactory
answer to these questions and puts the bur-
den of rebuttal upon the protestants.
Our eccentric contemporary, the Bee, is
amused" over statements in the RECORD
UNION concern the rabbit pest" 1t re-
marks that our so-called rabbits are
hares, which never burrow, and none of
our wild species dig holes in the earth"
The owlish wisdom of this comment will
excite all sportsmen to outlaws of uproari-
Gus laughter. The hare of North Amer
lea, known here as the "jackass rabbit" is
the hare of England. The rabbit, against
which half the vineyardists in the country
are building rabbit" fences, is the rabbit
known throughout Europe, where it is be-
lieved to have spread originally from
Spain. 1t is not only plentiful here and
pest, but it is not hare, though of the
same family" in natural history. We
have here three varieties-the "bluejack,"
the "cottontail," and larger kind, which |
is believed to closely resemble the Austria
liam rabbit. Climatic and other conditions
in different parts of the world have given
us varieties of rabbits, but they differ little
in general appearance and less in habit
They burrow in California, in Australia, in
France, and everywhere, and in no part of
the world can they be mistaken for "hare"
except by such ill-informed people as write
of rabbits" in the columns of our contem-
porary, and assert that they are hares. If |
that authority really believes the rabbit |
has not burrow in the ground, does not |
make himself at home with owls and !
snakes, does not bring forth young after
three weeks of CESSATION, and is nothing
more nor less than the larger, longer
bodied, leaping, long-eared, and more ex-
elusive and less numerous hare, it should get
rid of its conceits by consulting any lad |
from the rural districts.
The State has not yet formulated gen.
eral system for irrigation and drainage, as
1t must do-one touching the question of
water rights and control of streams
throughout the State. Until it does so, it
needs the aid of State Engineer as an
adjunct to the Commission that the Legis-
lature is asked to create To abolish the
office, as is proposed by the Legislative
Committees on Irrigation, is not in the
direction of true economy. With the